Queen Anne's Lace and Lilacs

Fun with Facebook

Several months ago (or more, probably), I obtained a Facebook page.  I did this mostly to check up on Evan's and Brett's pages.  Oh, wait...  So, yeah, this started years ago when they were mere teenagers, and not months ago.  Anyway, they knew what I was doing, same as when I joined over at MySpace, as I informed them I would be popping in from time to time to make sure all was well, if you know what I mean.  (By the way, Brett still hasn't added me as his friend.  I don't think he ever will, either.)

Other than checking on the kids every once in a while, I rarely even thought about Facebook (or MySpace, for that matter). I think Evan was my only friend for a long time.  Eventually, I had some of my own actual friends join up over there, we became friends, which brought me up to about five or six friends (I've got 23 now...woo hoo!  23 isn't very many, fyi) - but still, I just didn't think too often about Facebook.  And when I did, I'd get over there and think, "Which page am I supposed to be dealing with, 'home' or 'profile'!  It drove me crazy!  It still does.  I've asked the kids, any of their friends who stop by, and a few perfect strangers, and they just laugh.  So, I don't know.  I just drop in on both pages, they have similar info, I don't know.  Sometimes, if I didn't have my "Pieces of Flair" to play with, I don't know what I'd do.

What's happened lately, though, is that I've discovered some of my Continentals people.  That has been quite wonderful!  One of them is Cher, Cam Floria's (the guy who started Continentals) wife at the time.  I loved Cher.  She was - and is - so pretty!  She knew everyone's name at rehearsal camp.  There were probably 400 - 500 people there, and she was greeting everyone by name when they walked by.  (I didn't even know the names of all 40 people on my own tour by the end of rehearsal camp, two weeks later.)

So, Cher's at Facebook and, today, has a link to a pretty cool video.  If you like listening to choirs, this is quite good.  The best part is the first few minutes.  I think even Evan (orchestra boy) will like it!

An Afternoon with Link (via Computer)

I chatted with Link today.  It's been such a long time since we've spoken.  Well, we didn't speak, we chatted on Facebook (finally, an actual use for Facebook!).  I've mentioned Link before.  It was such a freakish thing, the way we reconnected.  Maybe not freakish, but at least kind of surprising.

This is Link and me with our bus driver, Dache (sorry about the photo quality).  It was just about our last day together - maybe the next-to-last day.  We were at another tour member's Grandfather's church somewhere in southern California (right?).  I could find my itinerary and know.  Found it.  We were at Calvary Baptist Church in Gardena, CA on August 25, 1982, our last concert.

I enjoyed the chat, Link.  Now, don't be a stranger!  :)

My Day at NORAD

I was listening to Tammy Bruce this morning, and she mentioned that NORAD had moved from Cheyenne Mountain to Peterson Air Force Base.  I was surprised to hear this, and I was especially surprised that it had happened several months ago.  How did I miss this?  Was it not in the news?  Anyway, the AP ran this article earlier today.

My ears always perk up when I hear "NORAD," because I visited the complex at Cheyenne Mountain a few years ago.  OK, a couple of decades ago.  My first Continental Tour had a reunion the week after Christmas 1980 in Aurora, CO.  One of the guys in that tour invited us to his house, and several of us spent a fun week gallivanting around that portion of Colorado.  I can't remember what my friend's dad's profession was, but he had connections that enabled us to get a tour of NORAD. 

It was very exciting to walk through and see everything.  I was quite impressed with the massive springs that were sitting underneath all of the sections.  We were given a tour that lasted a couple of hours.  I remember the springs, the computer room, and being told not to be goofing around.   Well, I was with a bunch of guys, ages 18 - 22 about, so they would be the potential goofing off-ers.  Not me.

I'm pretty sure I had to have NORAD explained to me before we went to see it.  And, I should have taken notes or written a journal entry about the experience (we weren't allowed to take photos).  I don't know that I thought I'd forget so much in such a short amount of time. 

The Best of Times, the Worst of Times

This afternoon, I began having weird problems with my computer.  Specifically, one of my external hard drives.  The one with my photos, my family trees, my scrapping pages, all of my digital scrap kits.  I wanted to throw a huge fit, but I think I handled myself rather decently.  For me.  But, poor Tim.  He's not able to feign ignorance in these matters - and I know he'd love to.  So, he came home after dealing with computer issues all day to figure out what the heck happened here.  We still don't know, by the way.  I like to post a photo or two with my posts, but I am too disgusted to select, edit, and find some kind of frame.  I've decided to just vent.

Except, in the midst of all of this, there has been some excitement!  First of all, I heard from my best friend in high school's mom.  I enjoy hearing from her - and she had wedding pictures.  I love wedding pictures.  Actually, she emailed me last night, and I'd been planning to email her back this morning.  I also wanted to write, here, about her and my friend.  Well, as the day wore on and it was turning out to not be a fluke about the EHD, I didn't get the email done.  Then, as things were getting tense as we were discovering all the different things that weren't working properly, computer wise - and they weren't that tense, not really (I think he was mostly unhappy because he didn't get to watch the Celtics-Lakers game) - I received an email from one of my friends from Continentals.  We haven't corresponded in years!  A few hours later, I received an email from another Continental friend.  I was so excited, giddy as a schoolgirl, my anger and disgust with this computer began to fade (I'm sure they'll both be back tomorrow).

As a venting post, this hasn't been so bad - thanks to old friends.  Thinking positively that nothing else will go wrong, I'll take care of those emails in the morning (remember, what may be morning for you, may not be morning to me - even if we're in the same time zone).  However, if you hear a yell coming from the west, things have probably taken a turn - back to the worst.   

Touch of the Master's Hand

I was looking for something online (I can't even remember what it was).  Lo, and behold, I found myself at You Tube listening to the Continental Singers singing "Touch of the Master's Hand," originally a poem by Myra Brooks Welch.  I was quite excited, of course, because this was one of our songs the summer of 1982, my second year of tour with Continentals. 

When I toured in 1980 and 1982, there were about 16 groups of singers and bands (Continental Singers and Orchestra), averaging 40 people in a group.  Each group sang in the United States for most of the summer, and then spent a few weeks in other countries.  We started out with two weeks of rehearsal camp at Arrowhead and then hit the road.  My first year, I traveled to West Germany, France, Austria, and Switzerland.  My second year, I went to Great Britain, Belgium,  and Holland.

A few weeks before rehearsal camp, we'd receive our practice tapes.   These were sent to us with the assumption we would have the music memorized by the time we arrived in California.  Well, um, I usually began cramming about two days before I had to leave.  I was an alto, so between having to learn a part and the words, I arrived at rehearsal camp knowing neither my part nor the words.  I was always amazed to find I was in the minority.  Oh well, by the middle of the summer I had it all down perfectly. 

The practice tapes were from the album, which had been made sometime during the winter to be ready for sale by summer.  By the 1980s, Continentals had well-known Christian artists who sang the solos on the albums.  The choral parts were sung by studio musicians, in addition to a few people who were current and ex-Cons.  I'm explaining this, because many people thought the albums we sold were performed by our actual group.  No, that was not the case.  But, we had to sing it exactly as the album, because "when people buy records, they want it to sound like the performance."   Rest assured, each tour had the "Continental sound."

In 1984, one of the songs on our album was "Touch of the Master's Hand."   I liked it well enough; it wasn't my favorite.   I did  love our guy who had the solo/speaking part.  His name was Link, he had curly red hair, and he was from Tennessee.  He had a southern drawl and voice that were perfect for this song. 

I don't have the album, although I think my mom may have one.  I hadn't heard or thought about this song in many years.  I was quite surprised to find it on You Tube.  I don't know anything about the group who made the video, just that they used the Continentals' version of "Touch of the Master's Hand."

THE TOUCH OF THE MASTER'S HAND
'twas battered and scarred and the auctioneer
Thought it scarcely worth his while
To waste much time on the old violin,
But he held it up with a smile:

"What am bidden, good folks?" he cried,
"Who'll start the bidding for me?"
"A dollar! A dollar!" then "Two! Only two?"
"Two dollars, and who'll make it three?"

"Three dollars once, three dollars twice . . .
And going for three . . . "   but no.
From the room, far back, a gray-haired man
Came forward and picked up the bow.

Then, wiping the dust from the the old violin,
And tightening the loosened strings,
He played a melody pure and sweet,
As a carolling angel sings.

The music ceased, and the auctioneer
With a voice that was quiet and low
Said, "What am I bid for the old violin?"
And he held it up with the bow.

"A thousand dollars! And who'll make it two?
"Two thousand! Who'll make it three?
"Three going once? Three going twice?
"And going . . . and gone!" said he.

The people cheered but some of them cried,
"We do not understand!
What changed its worth?" -- Swift came the reply,
"The touch of the Master's Hand."

And many a man with life out of tune
And battered and scarred with sin
Is auctioned cheap to the thoughtless crowd
Much like the old violin.

A "mess 'o pottage"
A glass of wine
A game and he travels on.
He's "going" once
And "going" twice
And "going" . . . and almost "gone"

Then along comes the Master, and the foolish crowd
Never can quite understand
The worth of a soul or the change that's wrought
By the touch of the Master's Hand. By Myra Ross Welch (1926)

I can still remember my part in this song that I haven't sung now for a couple of decades.  I wish I could remember what I was searching the internet for a few hours ago.